The University Teachers Association of Ghana UTAG has indicated that it's members will on Friday,8th Oct 2021 embark on a strike action.
According to the Teacher Union, the decision was made after the association held it's 20th congress following the discussions it made with the government on their its welfare packages and wages.
At the said meeting, the government could not go beyond the cedi equivalent to $1200 which is payable in 2024, this proposed package was rejected by the association in a previous meeting.
UTAG however, proposed a minimum of the Cedi equivalent of $250 per month for research allowance (plus a review of the 2024 implementation), and the implementation of the new Market premium by December 21, 2021.
The UTAG has decided to embark on another strike following the lack of agreement with the government.
Also, the University Teachers Association of Ghana is insistent that it would not bargain its $250 per month for research.
It further added that "there is no need for any further negotiation on the proposed conditions of service" and "UTAG will only return to work after conditions 2 and 3 above are agreed and signed to by government."
It would be recalled that the University Teachers Association of Ghana on August 17, suspended its 17-day old strike after the National Labour Commission withdrew a legal suit against it.
Source: myjoyonline.com
The University Teachers Association of Ghana UTAG called on the government through the letter below to come back and negotiate with them after they called off their 17 days strike but the government has dragging it’s feet.
Image Credit: The University Teachers Association of Ghana UTAG
They also called the government to at least repatriate their take home salaries but is government is yet to response to this request.
REPATRIATE OUR TAKE HOME SALARIES NOW- Prof Charles Marfo (National President of UTAG)
According the Prof. Charles Marfo (National President of UTAG), the union executives of UTAG had a close meeting with government official but yielded on good results. The government did not agree to the demands of the union leaders. "Our salary has been reduce, we only need repatriation of our take home salaries" - Prof Charles Marfo
The negotiation team did not agree with what the government officials brought to the table and the government officials too were very reluctant to agree to the demands of the negotiation team of UTAG, therefore the meeting ended inconclusively.
The negotiation team of UTAG sent their report back to the National Executives committee of UTAG and the committee strongly disagreed with the request of the government officials. Until the government gives what is due to lecturers in the various public universities in Ghana the strike is till infinity.
This strike started at examination week of most of the universities. Therefore students are stranded as they keep on wondering when they will even write their end of semester. When two elephants fight, the trees in the forest always suffer. This strike is likely to change the academic calendar of the various public universities that were working tediously to reinstate the old academic calendar that was seriously affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
Thursday 5th August 2021.
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